Cubs name Anthony Iapoce Special Assistant to the GM/Player Development

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Cubs name Anthony Iapoce Special Assistant to the GM/Player Development

CHICAGO – The Chicago Cubs named Anthony Iapoce to the post of special assistant to the general manager/player development.

Iapoce, 39, essentially becomes the minor-league hitting coordinator while contributing to additional projects within the organization. He spent the last three seasons as the Toronto Blue Jays’ roving hitting instructor.

The former 33rd-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers, who reached as high as Triple-A on four different occasions, played for 11 seasons in the Brewers and Marlins organizations, as well as independent baseball.

Theo really hated the cubs approach to hitting through out the system huh?

I think Epstein literally wants them to work counts not just "wait for your pitch". To some hitters, "their pitch" might seem like the first pitch. That's not what he seems to be preaching, though. It sounds like he really wants hitters to learn to work deeper into counts and drive up pitchers' pitch counts early.

Seems like the front office certainly made the most of the time not spent attached to a team in the postseason. These hires don't happen over night.

These are the kind of moves they really didn't have time to make before the player acquisition portion of the off-season really got started last season. I don't know if they even had the chance last season since they were just getting settled in while other teams were trying to lock down all of these positions.